Maura Ginty

Hopping on the holiday e-tail bandwagon, portal player Snap.com and online community XOOM.com, Inc. Monday unveiled Snap Shopping. The Snap Shopping service intends to serve as an online middleman between shoppers and more than 300 merchants, offering reviews, comparison shopper services, and product watches. Snap Shopping’s debut is accompanied by the release of My Wallet, […]

A New Zealand woman has accused portal giant Yahoo! Inc. of infringing on a patent for online shopping software. Juliette Harrington alleges that Yahoo!

Portal player Lycos, Inc. and tech e-tailer Virtual Technology Corp. Friday inked a deal for a co-branded computer sales site. Under the terms of the deal, Virtual Technology will pay an unspecified sum to Lycos (LCOS) over the next three years, though exact financial terms were not disclosed. The two companies will share ad revenues […]

Hailing the buy as a major step in its European IP and Internet strategy, UK telco Energis Thursday bought Dutch operator EnerTel for £352 million (US$571 million) in cash and stock. EnerTel is a network operator catering to 120 corporations and 55 ISPs in the Netherlands, and reported earnings of £28 million (US$45 million) last […]

PRIMUS Telecommunications Group Inc. Thursday made its first buy in Latin America, purchasing a 51 percent stake in Brazilian independent ISP Matrix Internet S.A. Matrix Internet ranks as Brazil’s largest independent and fifth largest overall ISP, according to PRIMUS (PRTL) . Matrix Internet currently lists 54,000 users, and claims its subscriber base has been doubling […]

Putting its weight in yet another e-commerce arena, Amazon.com Wednesday took a stake in Internet credit card issuer NextCard as part of a $150 million electronic commerce alliance. Amazon (AMZN) will purchase up to 4.4 million shares of NextCard (NXCD), valued at $139.1 million using Tuesday’s closing price. NextCard will also create a co-branded card […]

European auctioneer QXL.com‘s German venture Tuesday extended its relationship with America Online Inc. in Europe. Under the terms of the expanded deal, QXL.de will partner with AOL Germany for its AOL Netfind, Compuserve, Webfind and AOL Buddy-list brands. AOL (AOL) in turn will deliver 75 million page impressions over the duration of the contract. UK-based […]

Pointing to Latin America as an Internet phenomena-in-waiting, Jupiter Communications this week expanded into the region with the launch of localized research services. Jupiter (JPTR) inked a deal with IBOPE, the largest market research organization in Latin America, to conduct surveys on the Internet economy in Latin America. IBOPE will also be involved in Jupiter’s […]

Internet messenger Critical Path, Inc. Monday inked a deal with broadband provider Global TeleSystems Group, Inc. (GTS) to market its expanded IP portfolio throughout Europe. Critical Path (CPTH) with offer its services under the GTS (GTS) name. “GTS has the most extensive network and service operation across Europe. Through its relationship with Critical Path, GTS […]

RealNetworks Monday split its Web site into two new business- and consumer-oriented portals, and has linked its RealPlayer 7 upgrade to its newly unveiled network services. RealNetworks now offers the business-oriented RealNetworks.com and the consumer-oriented Real.com Network. Real.com intends to offer consumers a springboard to aggregated audio and video programming through RealPlayer 7, also released […]

Spike Networks Ltd. Monday reported that its revenues skyrocketed up 112 percent from last year’s figures. The company reported revenues of $2.312 million during the three months to September 30. Spike has already expanded its operations in Australia, the United States and Japan, and the company now says it will use its revenue to “aggressively […]

Irish ISP and telco Esat Clear and IBM have launched Surf PC, which the companies claim is the first computer and free Internet access bundle to be offered in Ireland. Surf PC intends to woo customers with a monthly fee of £32 per month. IBM will supply the PCs for the offering. The package also […]